During last night's episode of Louie there was a scene where he's taking his daughters home after trick-or-treating and two guys corner him and are about to mug him. My first reaction was that he should have split some skulls but would increasing the hostility of the situation put his daughters in even more danger? Maybe. Instead he throws a bike frame or something through a shop window so the police will come which is probably the smarter move. I have next to zero confidence in the police's ability to come to the aid of a situation in time. Because of that I've stepped in to break up a number of fights when one person was on the receiving end of more than their fair share of violence. It's shocking how little some people will do to help a stranger, rather to just let "the cops" handle it. If an old woman has her purse grabbed in a parking lot full of able bodied men and no one helps it's a fucking shame.
Really? You would risk your life for a fucking purse? A lot of these guys carry guns and knives and you think the potential consequences of getting into a physical struggle with one of them is worth it so Mildred doesn't have to order new credit cards and cancel her checks?
Absolutely, its less the fact that its a purse, more the fact that some asshole is trying to steal from an elderly lady. If you do this you deserve to get your head caved in. *Edit* I also realize that i can not prove that this is not an "internet tough guy" post.
Maybe this is the reason that the south is still stuck in purgatory, but I was raised where that is exactly what you do. Its also more than likely that you're going to get help form any other male that saw it/heard you describe it. Shit, I ain't gonna let some thug mug someone's grandma.
I don't disagree with any of this, however, it's still your fucking life... over a purse. Now don't get me wrong, if I knew the guy wasn't packing and was confident our nanny state laws wouldn't convict me I would try to chase the guy down and give him a good old fashioned ass kicking, but in our world where criminals carry guns and knives and heroes are put on trial there is no fucking way I would risk getting shot or doing time over a piece of leather with some old lady's check book.
God made men, Sam Colt made them equal. The tiniest woman can now protect her life by using lethal force against the largest would be assaulter. Fight crime. Shoot back.
Okay, because I was called out, I'll field this one. I have never done hard time in prison, but my brother is almost finished with a 14 year stint in medium-to-maximum security Federal prison (he's currently in maximum). The procedure varies from one prison/region to another, but generally when you get shipped to a new prison, the ruling gangs screen the new meat (based on race and affiliation) for possible recruits (if you aren't already affiliated. And god help you if you are part of a gang and don't have any backup at your new "home."). You are forced to show your paperwork/show tattoos/etc. If you refuse to do so, you will get fucked with. Probably not at that moment, but no one will trust you or try to protect you if something bad happens (and it probably will!), and everyone will suspect the worst of you. And they don't always make the right decisions either. As mentioned above, child molesters and snitches are the scum of the earth, and will will definitely be fucked with BADLY, unless the gang in question decides to cut you a break: The aryan gangs that my brother has had to deal with (oh, just for the record, my brother is neither a snitch or a pedophile. My brother has done A LOT of time in the hole because he keeps his mouth shut and won't cooperate with the powers that be.) will give incoming white prisoners the option of getting into protective custody within a few days, or they can take their chances. (The only exception to this is if the scum-bag in question has done something to one of the gang members personally, or to another member of that gang. Then he will definitely get what's coming to him.) My brother says that the rats and kiddie fuckers always opt for solitary confinement. I have no inside information about black or latino gangs, except that those races tend to be forced into gangs if they aren't already affiliated, whereas the white gangs will leave you alone, but they won't back you up if shit happens. Because of this, my brother has never been a member of any aryan gang. He just tries to stay under the radar. There is a whole "industry" of fucking guys up in prison. If an unproven guy wants to get recruited into a gang, he has to "put his time in." That means doing dirty-work for the gang. It could be kiestering contraband in, showing that you have pull/influence on the outside, but usually it means busting heads. And the heads in question might not have done anything to any of the involved parties. Guys will put their time in by hospitalizing snitches and child molesters just because of their crime. Focus: I'd either beat the guy's ass for awhile until I got it out of my system (like I ever would!) and say that he tried to assault me, thereby making my actions defensive, or just kill him and plant a gun on him. But just killing him wouldn't be enough. I'd much rather paralyze him from the neck down so he has to live like Hotwheelz. And then I do things like sneak in and piss in his IV bag and kink his catheter. How would I get away with that, you ask? Nurses are easily bribed.
You know, I kind of see this as a "Spider Man dilemma." On the one hand, it's not your problem and the potential consequences greatly outweigh the value of the purse. On the other hand, that guy is a criminal, and you have no idea how many other people he's mugged, or whether he has really hurt someone doing it. The point isn't to get the purse back and beat the mugger up, the point is to get that person arrested and off the streets. You have no idea what he might do next if you don't stop him. This is actually a tragedy of the commons. No one wants to assume the cost of stopping a thief because the personal damage is low, but the overall damage of that person to society can be quite high. I think context would determine whether I would actually get involved in stopping a crime, but I would certainly feel morally obligated to do so.
Despite the half dozen things that COULD happen, I'd go after the guy 99/100 times. Chances are he doesn't have a gun or he'd be doing armed robberies and a knife in unskilled hands really isn't that dangerous. Especially when I carry just about everywhere I go and would trip the fucker on his face anyways. The scarier situation for me is being with a girl or girlfriend when shit gets sideways. On two occasions I've been in a heightened situation where I couldn't react the way I normally would for fear of their safety. It may be sexist but "honey you'll just get in the way" is a true statement.
I think the reality is that in a crisis, most people are more worried about the safety of their child, than punishing the person who put them in harms way. It's not even nearly the same, but a friend was raped and called me first when she got to a phone. I didn't even think about going after the asshole until she was on her way to hospital with a police escort. I'd assume parents are a million times more focused on their kid's safety than I was on my friends. When the kid is safe, Daddy may well try his hand as a Sniper, or make arrangements through a cousin in prison. But while the kid is in danger? You get them safe first. But by the same token, god help anyone between a parent and a kid in danger. I saw a guy get taken away in an ambulance once when he tried to keep a mother behind the safety barriers after her kid fell off a walk way on the way to a roller coaster at a theme park. Between the anger at the park (and therefore it's representatives) over the incident, and the fact that he was trying to keep her away while her kid was in danger? The guy was probably lucky to get away with a busted jaw.
Hadn't heard of the case of Leon Plauche before, but I have to say what he did was incredibly stupid. Just in terms of the best interests of his son, I don't think it was the right decision. A different judge would probably of sent him to jail for any number of years and his son would have essentially grown up without a father. Worse, had the cops not known him they may very well of just shot him dead right there. The guy is shooting in an airport after all. In this case he "got away with it", but you have to wonder what the son thinks when he looks into his father's eyes? "Daddy my hero" or "Daddy the cold-blooded murdered that executed a handcuffed man". My bigger issue with this is the utter selfishness of doing it in the middle of a crowded airport. I'm no expert on firing handguns, but I've never seen a shooting stance that involved being twisted halfway around, holding a payphone in the left hand while bringing up the gun in the other hand under the left arm and firing at a moving target. Granted, it was a relatively short distance but he could of easily missed and instead killed the police officer that was escorting the guy, or killed someone off in the background simply minding their own business. These people may have children as well, and are definitely someone else's kids. You Google this story and you get a bunch of "Fuck Yeah!" comments, but the headline for this story could of easily been "Distraught vigilanty misses target, kills veteran police officer, father of 4"
I was exiting the Sears Tower with my wife and baby in the early evening when we saw a gang banger was running after a girl and out of view down the North wall.. I thought they were playing at first, but then I kept seeing him try to corner her. He wouldn't go as far as striking her, but he was aggressive to the point he was drawing a crowd. She'd start crying and he kept pulling her by her elbow, trying to avoid the attention. Everyone was looking but not doing a thing. I first tried to call 911, but I was put on hold. I then started looking for a cop, it was downtown Chicago but there wasn't a cop or security guard around. It was just tourists with scared shitless looks on their faces. I considered stepping in, but he wasn't hitting her and she kept following him when he walked away. Not to mention I was with my family. His huge jersey could have easily hid one, and I didn't know if his boys were around. I ended up running my family to the closest entrance, had to speak my broken Spanish to the cleaning ladies to find a cop, and the gangbanger and his girlfriend took off by then. Even if I didn't have my family with me, I wouldn't have approached that kid. I don't have a concealed license.
I'd knock him out on the spot long enough to take my kid home and make sure he/she is safe. Then I'm making a couple phone calls: There won't be a body to find.
I have done time in Europe (drugs) and sex offenders are kept segregated, the level varies between countries. If normal prisoners get the chance, prison justice is definitely handed out mercilessly. Personally, I have witnessed a rapist get so badly cut up with razors melted into toothbrushes that his cheeks were sliding of his face.